Thoughts & Insights

Japan produces world-class music, with songwriting, production, and performance standards equal to any major market, but has not translated that into consistent global presence. It’s a music industry built for domestic dominance, treating the rest of the world as optional - while neighbouring South Korea, with a market a third the size, has spent the last 20 years building an export machine

SESAC has just executed one of the most ambitious capital moves we’ve seen in the music services space to date. Through a whole-business securitisation, the company has raised $889 million in senior notes, bringing its total debt load to approximately $1.1 billion.

Everyone's got an opinion on AI right now. Panic. Outrage. Wild optimism. Deep fear. And understandably so as the pace of development is staggering, and the implications for creativity, authorship, and income are massive.

As the Majors Consolidate Power, What Does “Independent” Even Mean Anymore?

Book Two Is Coming: From Leadership to Purpose, and Why the Next Chapter Matters Even More

In the so-called “glory days” of the music industry, there was room for the middle-class songwriter. These writers were a creative force who weren’t famous, but could make a sustainable living writing album tracks, contributing to niche projects, or landing syncs in ads and TV. They weren’t household names, but they were the engine of musical diversity and innovation. Today, that space has all but vanished. The industry has shifted towards extremes: chart-topping stars at the top, struggling independents at the bottom, and a vast void in between.

There’s been a lot of noise lately around the UK government’s stance on AI – and I’ve got to be honest, it’s completely understandable why it has raised some serious alarm bells with all of us in the creative industries. Not because we’re against progress or scared of tech (this couldn’t be further from the truth), but because it feels like our rights and the rights of the incredibly talented creators that we get the honour to work with – the very core of what makes creativity valuable – are being treated as collateral damage in the race to lead the AI arms race.